Passing it on.

One of the few things I'm any good at is playing guitar and bass. I started out as a bass player over 40 years ago. Guitar I picked up in China when playing bass solos became just too borrring. Keith Richards was my guitar teacher. Of the 450 Rolling Stones songs, I have about 250 of them down. And most of the jazz standards from the Real Book. And the 75 songs I co-wrote in the Flying Nuns and LovePuppets. And the back catalogue of long lost songs I had played over the decades... Yeah, I'm an accomplished player and have been for a long time now. Although I spent two years at music college back in the 80's I never pursued a serious musical career. It was always 'just playin' the bass' for whoever or in whatever... a 25 year career in creative advertising soon relegated my axes and amps to the back room. Played infrequently, until I moved to China in 02, where I played with lots of people and bands and had a fully fledged music room in our Beijing apartment. Good times.

Then I got sick with failing kidneys and my life fell apart pretty quick, like those towers did on 9/11.

BUT through all that i managed to keep playing. Acoustic mostly, and I think I've learned over 1000 songs in the last 4 and half years on those two guitars. Despite an 8 month period where my left arm was so fucked up I couldn't play, and thought I would never play again - as well as i did anyway. It was a shitty time and I took a lot of drugs to deal with all the ops and procedures i was going thru. But the loud constant music in my headphones probably kept it together for me. Seriously. I took a trip backwards down my time tunnel and really dug deep into the music I had grown up with. It was a revelation and when I picked up my trusty Telecaster after 8 months without playing... I truly wuly held it down. Really well. And again.

Then I wept. Grace folks... Once again my God had rewarded me...

If anything my playing was better than before. More nuance. A fearlessness with moving my phrasing and progressions in a song and finding I was playing new fresh harmonies to songs I had known for decades. Once again, like at music college I was actually improvising again. Yes I can always find my third guitar or vocal part in a song with two guitars... but not like this. Maybe it was the drugs. Ho ho ho...

A few weeks later I picked up my P Bass and Maton Fretless and it was hard work but I had lost none of my dexterity or reach or groove... I could only play a few songs at a time coz I was a sickly weak little white boy. But I did slowly gain strength. Now I can play all night. Yay.

Anyhow... late last year, I got a call from my 12 year old daughter, Maddie, that went something like this: "Hi Dad, hey, for Christmas can I have a bass guitar?" "You want to play bass?" "Yes dad I do. I start high school next year and playing bass will earn me the respect." "Yeah... it will... but you gotta be a player or you are just a poser." "I know. I want to play like you do. It just sounds and looks so cool the way you do it." "Ok OK... look, go to Fender.com and choose the bass YOU like and we'll see... send me the pic and price page..." "OK." Ten minutes later is a link she had sent me. She had found and loved this 3/4 scale Fender Mustang P Bass, arctic white with a 1962 tortoise shell scratch plate, rosewood neck and full coil pick-ups. I was staggered.

I called her back. "Hey Mads, you choose this bass? Jeezus girl, it's perfect for your first bass and being 3/4 scale just right for a nipper like you." "I know. So can I have it? It's soooo coool." What could I say? "Mads, i shall order it online immediately and have it sent to you... do not open it until Christmas morning. Or else." "OK Dad thaaaaaanks love you byee..."

Kids.

That was 5 months ago. Maddie is now playing and learning and listening and watching. She likes my kind of music and told me she "hates all that shit like Beyonce that all the mums listen to..." She admires girl bass players like Tal Wilkenfeld, and Melissa and Nicole from the Smashing Pumpkins... yes Kimosabi... The Force is strong in this one... Mads is a quick learner and I insist she learns music theory as she goes. It will only make her a better and rounded muso - who can speak the language. Not just the jargon or bullshit. She is getting tuition at school and I am her guiding hand to finding her blue notes, learning her scales, modes and circle of 5ths - all with the benefit of Dad's insights. Maddie wants to be a player. She feels the power of an Open E. She understands that her bass sound is critical to everything - and the real job of a bass is to give all music beauty, soul and power.

I've since got her a bass rig and all the pro accessories - which she plays in her room - loudly she told me, to piss her brother off. Kids alright - in this case 12yo boy/girl twins. Yep, I have passed it on.

Twice now.

My first born, Jet, has become quite an axeman. He's 27 and plays both guitar and bass too. He's a leftie, which must slightly suck when it comes to buying the guitars you really want. He plays guitar in a Perth indy band called Danks Garage. All I need now is a drummer and keyboard player... and we can think about putting The Jeds together and doing some gigs. How fucking awesome would that be... OK, count us in Maddie...2, 3, 4...

And that ladies and gentlemen is known as 'Passing it on'.